Common Core Critics Speak Out in Texas

26 Jun 2014

DALLAS, Texas–On Friday, June 20, during the two-day Austin-held #CANiSEE The Solutions conference on Fed Led Ed, an impromptu press conference took place. Among the speakers were Dr. Sandra Stotsky and Dr. James Milgram–both were there to recount their experiences on the CommonCore validation committee where both refused to sign off on the subpar standards. Also among the speakers was Stotskyon language arts, and Milgram on mathematics.

Stotsky welcomed everyone to the press conference. She has become a lightning rod for Common Core Critics coast-to-coast. Dr. Peg Luksik (Founded on Truth) and Frank Gaffney (Center for Security Policy) were not in attendance; however both presented at the event, which was included in the previous Breitbart Texas coverage.

Stotsky also touched upon ideas she unveiled in Albany at the June 17th “NY Lobby Day,” as Breitbart Texas’ article included. Stotsky spoke to Breitbart Texas in greater detail on these multiple secondary standards and accelerated sequences she introduced. She also told Breitbart Texas the importance of including optional alternative pathways so that public education would not be based solely on Common Core, standards which she called “baseline and inadequate.” Instead, as she had told Breitbart Texas, it would open up the playing field to “first rate courses in Math, English and other subjects.”

Milgram, a Stanford University professor of mathematics, shared how Texas reminded him much of California 20 years ago on the education front. In his recent interview with Breitbart Texas, he said that in the 1990’s he briefly succeeded in reinstating critical math concepts like the principle of compound interest into the 7th grade California content standards. Unfortunately, he also recounted his disappointment that “the teachers didn’t teach it.”

At the press conference, he reiterated his thoughts on this window of time stating “it delayed Common Core but it wasn’t enough.”

Robbins addressed Common Core as “recycled failure,” which she had discussed with Breitbart Texas saying, “It’s likethey said, let’s take all the things that didn’t work (for the last 50 years) and do more of it. Maybe it’ll work this time.”

Robbins was in Austin to present “Data-Mining Your Child.” She also authored the “Cogs in the Machine: Big Data, Common Core and National Testing” with American Principles Project’s Emmett McGroarty and the Heartland Institute’s Joy Pullman. Tnis was included in the article “Top Common Core Critics Stotsky, Milgram, Robbins on Fed Led Ed.”

A statement prepared by Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott was read at the press conference. It stated: “As governor, I am not going to allow Common Core in Texas. I will ensure that neither CSCOPE nor Common Core have any viability in the state of Texas. I know that principals, teachers and parents here in Texas know far better how to educate our children than bureaucrats in Washington, D.C.”